Compact electronic devices such as personal digital assistants (PDAs), cell phones, pagers, organizers and wireless mobile computing devices are often resource limited in that they have limited storage and processing power, and in the case of wireless enabled devices, limited communication bandwidth. The limited resources of such devices place constraints on the user interfaces used in such devices. For example, in compact electronic devices, it is generally not possible to dynamically change the theme or layout of the user interface once the device has been shipped. Customization of the user interface device for different users or, in the case of wireless enabled devices, for different wireless network operators or carriers, is a time consuming task that involves changing user interface source code loaded on the device. In addition to delivery and installation issues, source code based customization solutions can be cumbersome as the graphic designers that develop user interfaces frequently have limited programming skills. Customization of user interfaces is also hindered by the presence of a concurrent mix of newer and older devices that have varying capabilities but that all must be supported. For example, a given carrier may concurrently support monochrome and color devices.
Thus, there is a need for a method, system and data structure that enables changes and customizations to user interfaces for resource-limited devices to be economically, efficiently and easily implemented.